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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455480">it reminded me of you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Word_Addict/pseuds/Word_Addict'>Word_Addict</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>100 Ways to Say "I Love You" [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Ballet, Dancing, F/M, Gamora &amp; Natasha friendship, Gen, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Past Abuse, mentioned - Freeform, minor Starmora</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:55:51</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>757</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23455480</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Word_Addict/pseuds/Word_Addict</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Gamora sees Natasha dancing and is reminded of her own past.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gamora &amp; Natasha Romanov, Gamora/Peter Quill</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>100 Ways to Say "I Love You" [2]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1677706</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>it reminded me of you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Number 2 in the "100 Ways to Say 'I Love You'" series: "It reminded me of you."</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Gamora doesn’t know a lot of things. She doesn’t always know how to talk without her words turning into a blade, and she doesn’t know how to soften the blow of her questions so they don’t turn into insults.</p><p>Still, there are some things she <em>does </em>know. Like this strange dance Natasha is doing.</p><p>It feels like the dance Thanos made her do with her swords, over and over again until he deemed it good enough (<em>not good, never good, but enough would do</em>). Natasha spins across the of the room, dropping to her knees before standing again in one fluid motion.</p><p>Gamora watches her, wondering what happened. She doesn’t look happy, but she is relaxed, like going through the motions calms her. It was like what Nebula did before Thanos slowly replaced her piece by piece. Gamora can still remember her sister trying clumsily to replicate the movements she used to perform so effortlessly before. Thanos gave her the ability to become the perfect fighter, but he stripped away her humanity in the process.</p><p>There’s a song playing, Gamora notices, and as it ends Natasha returns to the floor. There’s silence in the room for a moment before the next song starts. Natasha stands, stretching one leg out behind herself elegantly.</p><p>It’s beautiful, and Gamora feels suddenly ashamed for intruding on the moment. She hurries away silently, putting it out of her mind.</p><p> </p><p>She lays awake that night remembering the last time she performed her sword dance as she liked to think of it. The last night before Thanos had opened her up, replacing her bones with titanium and her nerves with filament. It hadn’t been as bad as Nebula (<em>nothing would come close to what her sister suffered</em>) but it had hurt. She had screamed until Thanos threatened to make her regret it the next time she opened her mouth for anything other than speech or food.</p><p>Gamora shudders, wondering why the memory is coming back to her now. Beside her, Peter snores gently, and she focuses on the soft sound of his breathing, letting it soothe her to sleep. It doesn’t banish the nightmares, but it makes her waking a little more comforting.</p><p> </p><p>It doesn’t take long before she’s watching Natasha dance again. The other woman spins around the room like the winged insects Terrans call ‘butterflies’, skimming the ground. When she jumps, Gamora inhales quickly at the beauty of it.</p><p>Natasha lands already scanning the room. “Who’s there?” she calls, sounding more curious than upset.</p><p>Gamora steps forward with crossed arms. “It’s me,” she confesses.</p><p>Natasha looks her up and down and then nods. “All right,” she says, going back over to the barre and stretching her leg out onto it.</p><p>They don’t exchange any other words, but Gamora leaves feeling less uncertain than the day before.</p><p> </p><p>The next time Gamora approaches instead of merely standing in the doorway. “This is like something I used to do,” she explains, balancing on her toes. “Except I did it with swords.”</p><p>Natasha doesn’t say anything in response, but the look she gives Gamora is one of deep admiration.</p><p> </p><p>Peter asks what she’s thinking about that night, and Gamora tells him. “I saw Natasha dancing. She was beautiful.”</p><p>There’s no jealousy in Peter’s eyes when he nods – whatever his faults are, he trusts her to be faithful. “I heard she did ballet.”</p><p>“Ballet,” Gamora repeats. It doesn’t sound like the other Terran words she knows, with a soft lilt at the end of it. “What does it mean?”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Peter says with a shrug. “I think it’s French.” He pulls the blanket more securely around the two of them. “Why don’t you ask her tomorrow?”</p><p> </p><p>She does. Natasha explains she learned it as part of a training program in her youth. She calls it the Red Room, and the anger in her eyes is familiar.</p><p>“It was much the same for me,” Gamora tells her.</p><p>Natasha nods. “How did you escape?” she asks.</p><p>“I was rescued,” Gamora tells her, spinning her lightly across the room.</p><p> </p><p>It isn’t long until Natasha is asking to learn Gamora’s sword dance. It’s been a long time since Gamora has told anyone about it, and even longer since she picked up the blades to do it herself, but something in her feels a kinship with Natasha.</p><p>She brings a blade to their next meeting. It’s engraved with swirling designs and is elegant as well as deadly. When Gamora brings it out, Natasha asks why.</p><p>“It reminded me of you.”</p>
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